Nearly 30 years ago a man by the name of Dan Stone made a presentation to the board of the Rotary Club of Orangeville looking for funding for a new “Special” hockey team that he had started called the Orangeville Wolves. This special team was made up of neurodiverse athletes many of whom had Down’s Syndrome or Autism. The funds were to be used to send them to the annual Special Hockey International (SHI) tournament taking place that year in Albany New York. We couldn’t write the cheque fast enough.
That old “Danno” as his friends called him was a crafty fellow and told me to bring the cheque to their practice on Sunday. “Maybe bring your skates too” he said. About 5 minutes into that first practice I was hooked and a week or so later I was on a bus to Albany for my first of 17 “Special” hockey tournaments. My “job” was to write a story about what I saw and submit it to the local papers in Orangeville. I was to “spread the word” about special hockey much like I’m doing now.
Even the master wordsmith in me couldn’t describe fully what I saw. The overwhelming sportsmanship, the sense of team, the pure joy of being just being able to play brought back my love for hockey in spades. How could I describe all of the things that I saw. It sounds pretty easy to tell a story about a player who knocked another player down during a game, stopped his rush, went back and helped the player he knocked over up before heading back down the ice. Oh, and that player he knocked over, he played for the other team!
How could I explain the tears to you of a gruff old father watching his son score his very first goal. When I asked him on the bus on the way home what that felt like the emotion welled up in him again. “I never even thought he’d play” croaked out the answer.
The teams often eat together before and after games. After a game with St. Louis I went over to comment to one of the young players from the other team how great a player he was. He skated around the ice like a little water bug. As I approached he removed a prosthetic that he had to deal with in addition to his neurological issues. It was one of the few times in my life that I’ve found myself speechless. I could only manage to squeak out a “great game” and give him a thumbs up before returning to my table.
Many of the area teams play regular league games as well as travelling to these international tournaments. During my time they took me to London, England, Boston, Detroit, Washington, Lake Placid, and a host of Canadian cities.
Orangeville is not the only community in our district with a special team. They can also be found in Brampton, Guelph, Kitchener, Mississauga and Woolwich. Any of them could use a hand up either with funding or volunteer help.
If it’s something that you are interested in don’t hesitate to reach out to me at dharkness@live.ca